


wrong until you make it right

by megalopunny



Series: art kids [4]
Category: Compilation of Final Fantasy VII
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, F/M, M/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-11
Updated: 2019-11-11
Packaged: 2021-01-27 11:37:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,108
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21391525
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/megalopunny/pseuds/megalopunny
Summary: [art kids au]it’s instant, the way aerith’s eyes lock on tseng. it’s like her mind never forgot to look for him, like it was always waiting for him to come back.implications of past assault and abuse.
Relationships: Zack Fair/Aerith Gainsborough/Cloud Strife
Series: art kids [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/977451
Kudos: 18





	wrong until you make it right

They get a seat at a booth in the back, at Zack’s request. He’s always like that. He smiles at people and they do whatever he asks. It’d be dangerous, if Zack was anyone but himself; he uses his powers over young girls for good, or at least for better seats in crowded restaurants. It had been Aerith’s idea to go out, all three of them together, on a date. 

“We’ve been on plenty of dates,” Zack had said, not protesting, but confused. 

Cloud had nodded. He _was_ protesting. 

“A proper, public date. I don’t intend to hide in movie theaters forever.” Aerith’s word was law. Both boys avoided arguing with her when she used that voice. 

Her moms had given Cloud a gift card for the restaurant for his birthday, which Aerith had only been to once before, but was a favorite of her two mothers. Cloud had a way of looking uncomfortable anywhere that had you be seated by someone, especially if it didn’t involve drive thrus and 99 cent ice cream comes. Naturally, he thought the gift was a bad one - not that he’d say anything, and least of all, refuse it. But here, there's something about the way Cloud looks at her, in the long, flowy dress she wore, uncaring about being overdressed. "Maybe," he says, just to her, "this wasn't such a bad idea after all." 

They share a smile. 

She sits alone on her side of the booth, Zack and Cloud together, and the casual way he throws his arm over Cloud’s shoulder makes them both sigh. She stretches out in the corner against the wall, legs up on the seat. She could watch her boys forever. Zack says something, and over the people, and the music, she can’t hear, but it makes Cloud blush, straight to the tips of his ears. He laughs, despite himself, and she laughs too, even though she didn’t hear what was so funny anyway. 

They eat slowly, spending more time leaning in to talk over the table. Nights like these could go on forever. Aerith orders them all drinks, getting herself some tropical blend of mango, tangerine, regret, and tequila. 

She’s thinking about how long it takes Cloud to relax in new places, how it’s always worth it when he finally does, and just like that she stands, leans over the table, and kisses him. She kisses Zack next, leaving them both stunned and red, leaving Zack at a loss for words, which is a good look on him. She doesn’t care if anyone saw, she insists, though she looks around the restaurant anyway. 

It’s instant, the way Aerith’s eyes lock on Tseng. It’s like her mind never forgot to look for him, like it was always waiting for him to come back. _He looks the same_, is the first thing she thinks, then, _he always looked handsome with his hair pulled back like that, _ then, finally, _oh, god. _

There’s a girl on his arm, tiny and blonde and smitten. 

Aerith stumbles out of the booth, ripping her dress on her heels, and disappears down the corridor into the bathroom. 

She loses her dinner in the toilet in a disgusting potion of tangerine-mango-disaster, heaving, her dress collecting dust with her on her knees. 

In the end, her boys have to come and get her. Their food is boxed and bagged up. She’d lost all sense of time, so she doesn’t know how long she stayed there. It was long enough, at least, for Tseng and his new girl to be seated somewhere away from them. 

They leave without being seen. They give Aerith the back seat of the car to herself to lie down in. 

“So,” Zack starts, gently, concerned but still probing, “what happened back there?” 

Aerith only makes a noise, small, soft. “Shellfish allergy.” It’s the last thing she says to them all night. 

.

Cloud’s the only one with a class the next morning, and he leaves without bothering Aerith. Their apartment is unnaturally silent; Zack’s presence usually involves a cacophony of sounds. By now, he should have music on, or football clips from YouTube, or he should have broken a glass or knocked over a bowl. Then he’d have to vacuum, and so the noises around him build and build. He’s left Aerith alone in bed all morning. They don’t push her, which she likes. 

Sometimes she hates it. 

She doesn’t always know which way she’s leaning. 

She lurches in and out of the bathroom a few more times. Mouthwash is swished and candles are lit, and those candles are blown out. 

She creeps out before ten for water. 

Zack is sitting at the kitchen table. How strange it is to see him so quiet and still. 

“Are you angry?” It sounds meek, and she hates herself for that. 

“No,” he says, with a silent _but_. The sun through the kitchen window washes over dust motes. The yellow summer heat makes everything sleepier, slower, dreamlike. “I know you were lying last night.” 

She can’t bring herself to be surprised. She looks more absent than uncaring. It doesn’t matter that he knows. 

“Is it because your ex was there?” 

Her silence is telling. 

“You’re not jealous, right?” 

God, he can sound so unsure, and it’s like a knife in her heart. She can feel tears prickling and her face going red. She doesn’t deserve him. No one should ever make Zack sound so vulnerable. 

“No! Of course not! It’s not like that!” But she can’t say what it was like. All the words die in her throat. Little burning-out embers. She can’t keep herself from crying. Zack stands up with the clatter of his chair. He takes the glass of water from her and hugs her for as long as it takes for her sobs and hiccups to become words. 

“I thought,” she sighs, “that maybe it wasn’t bad. Or I was overreacting. Everyone gets mad sometimes… and I used to mess up a lot.” She wipes her eyes on the back of her hand. “And if he pushed me into trying new things even when I told him no… it’s fine.” 

Somewhere, a fly beats against a window screen. 

“Because… if it wasn’t fine, what was it? It couldn’t be anything else.” 

Zack’s breath and his heartbeart are fast. She can feel them. She feels empty inside. Her heart, her stomach, even her mind, for once. She breathes because Zack is breathing. Her heart is beating because she can feel his. 

When Cloud gets home later in the afternoon, Aerith sits him and Zack down and finally tells them something true about Tseng.


End file.
